a little flame that died down, leapt up, caught upon dry grass and bracken, seized upon crackling twigs, flared up high and ever fiercera devouring flame, hungry and yellow-tongued that licked along the eartha vengeful flame, pitiless and unrelentinga host of fiery demons that leapt and danced with crackling laughter changing little by little to an angry roar that was the voice of awful doom.

So that night all was ablaze with crackling fires in the woodlands, for though Robin and those others spoken of, only excepting Midge, the Miller's son, had many a sore bump and bruise here and there on their bodies, they were still not so sore in the joints that they could not enjoy a jolly feast given all in welcome to the new members of the band.

'I thought I heard someone at the door,' I answered; 'did you not feel a cold wind as if it was open?' 'It is but the night is sharp, the spring sets in very chill; slip the bolt, and sit down again,' and he flung a fresh log on the fire, that sent a cloud of sparks crackling up the chimney and out into the room.

Lucan, in his "Pharsalia" (915-921), has enumerated some of the plants burned for the purpose of expelling serpents: "Beyond the farthest tents rich fires they build, That healthy medicinal odours yield, There foreign galbanum dissolving fries, And crackling flames from humble wallwort rise.

O'er crackling ice, o'er gulfs profound, With nimble glide the skaters play; O'er treach'rous pleasure's flow'ry ground Thus lightly skim, and haste away.

" In the meantime the four younger children were whispering together over a large paper parcel, that crackled a good deal.

Her words fell from her lips like crackling embers, and her inflection ran up like the small end of a switch.

Even the hole in her stocking gave her piquancy; and she had wonderful black hair, which probably had not been combed properly for a month, and big, crackling black eyes.

"I shall find him," she repeated, in a louder tone; and she drew herself up, and bent forward,but her eyes saw not the cheerful fire-light, her ears took in no sound of crackling fagot, rising wind, or muttered fear among the three who sat and looked at her.

The coal bursts into crackling fits of merriment, as we thrust the poker between the iron ribs of the grate.

The flames leaped on him, too, as if to wrestle with him; his brown beard crackled, his hair, but he fought through it all.

THE MAYFLOWER In the gleam and gloom of the April weather, When the snows have flown in the brooklet's flood, And the Showers and Sunshine sport together, And the proud Bough boasts of the baby Bud; On the hillside brown, where the dead leaves linger In crackling layers, all crimped and curled, She parts their folds with a timid finger, And shyly peeps at the waking world.

A LETTER "It was all decided last night," said Betty, tucking her little feet carefully under her gown and clasping her knees with her hands to keep them warm, as she sat in Moppet's chair, which stood close by the fire, where a log burned and crackled in the big chimneya most unusual luxury for those days, and granted only to Moppet's youth and slight delicacy of constitution.

Here near Mitchell's, on a lonesome roadside, stood Kincaid's Battery, fated there to stay for hours yet, in hateful idleness and a fierce July sun, watching white smoke-lines of crackling infantry multiply in the landscape or bursting shells make white smoke-rings in the bright air, and to listen helplessly to the boom, hurtle and boom of other artilleries and the far away cheering and counter-cheering of friend and foe.

The question now was, which would succeed in driving his adversary from these defences, almost within a few yards of each other, and from behind which crackled the musketry.

The flames threw over it a lacy, shimmering, crackling net of gold.

The fir trees quivered; they gave out slight creaking, crackling noises as the rain came down.

Mount, knife in hand, ripped up the bales of crackling peltry, and Elerson delved in among the skins, flinging them right and left in his impatient search.

Immediately after they heard the loud, harsh, crackling reports of the battery to their rear, and the shells rushed whistling overhead.

Little blue flames came up into atmospheric life, through the rending fissures where so many years of ages they had been pent into the very blackness of darkness; and as they gained their freedom, they gave tiny, crackling shouts of liberty.

Her slight knowledge of Spanish was barely sufficient to make her wants known, so that the relief of conversation with her only companion was debarred her, and she was obliged to content herself with the sapless, crackling smiles and withered genuflexions that the old woman dropped like dead leaves in her path.

Their nerves shook to the creeping, crackling sounds that came from the wainscot, infinitely minute.

It crackled stiffly as she unfolded it.

Fast and furious Beltane sped on, crashing through underbrush and crackling thicket, o'erleaping bush and brook and fallen tree, heedful of eye, and choosing his course with a forester's unerring instinct, praying fiercely beneath his breath, and with the three ever close behind.

Imber's voice sank in whisperful awe as he crackled the sheets 'twixt thumb and finger and stared at the charactery scrawled thereon.